Friday, October 31, 2025

The two slits experiment can be experienced when weak radio signals reflect from your moving body and interfere with the same signal to your radio receiver creating dead zones as you move around


The phenomenon described—where weak radio signals reflected from your moving body interfere with signals reaching your receiver, causing dead zones—is indeed an example of wave interference closely related to the principles demonstrated in the double-slit experiment. In both cases, the basic requirement is that two or more coherent wave paths combine, producing regions of constructive (signal strengthened) and destructive (signal canceled) interference.csun​

How It Relates to the Double-Slit Experiment

The double-slit experiment shows how waves (light, sound, electrons, etc.) passing through two closely spaced openings can interfere, generating a pattern of alternating bright and dark bands (fringes) on a detector. These arise where the peaks and troughs of the waves align or oppose each other, creating zones of maximum and minimum intensity.plus.maths+1​

Similarly, in radio signal scenarios:

  • Reflections from a moving body act like additional “paths” or “slits.”

  • The radio waves arriving at your receiver from different paths can be in-phase or out-of-phase depending on the geometry, frequency, and position.

  • As you move, the path length difference changes, shifting the interference pattern and creating shifting dead zones (destructive interference).csun​

Everyday Examples

  • Wireless “dead spots” caused by the interference of direct and reflected signals indoors.

  • FM radio fading in vehicles due to constructive and destructive interference from multipath reflections off buildings, terrain, or even passengers.csun​

  • Similar principles are used in radar and physics experiments to analyze reflection and absorption patterns.plus.maths+1​

Why This Happens With Weak Signals

  • Weak signals are more sensitive to phase changes caused by path length differences.

  • At certain locations, reflected and direct signals can combine perfectly out of phase and cancel, creating a null spot (dead zone).csun​

  • These effects are observable with any radio or microwave system, especially in environments with many reflecting surfaces.

In summary, the shifting dead zones experienced when weak radio signals reflect from your moving body mirror the wave interference effects famously illustrated by the double-slit experiment, demonstrating the wave nature of radio energy, just as with light or other wave phenomena.wikipedia+2

Editor:

I think that the “parcel” effect experienced in the two slits experiment is created by the sensing equipment used

​The "parcel" or discrete impact effect observed in the double-slit experiment—where particles like photons seem to arrive at the detector as individual points rather than as waves—is not solely a creation of the sensing equipment, but reflects a deep aspect of quantum behavior. While the detection hardware (such as screens or photon detectors) necessarily records impacts as discrete events, the experiment's outcome is not artificially introduced by the design or limitation of the measurement apparatus.wikipedia+1​

Role of Sensing Equipment

  • Sensing equipment like screens and detectors reveals the wave–particle duality by registering particle impacts as discrete "hits"—these look like parcels or dots that, over time, build up an interference pattern.wikipedia​

  • The appearance of individual impacts is a quantum effect: photons (or electrons, etc.) behave probabilistically, and their wave functions visibly collapse upon measurement.profmattstrassler+1​

  • The equipment is designed to accurately capture these single events and spatial locations but does not artificially create the interference pattern or the "parcel effect"; it simply "senses" where each quantum particle lands.profmattstrassler​

Measurement and Wave Function Collapse

  • Interference patterns only appear when no which-path information is measured; if detectors are placed to track each particle's path, the wave function collapses, eliminating the interference pattern.plus.maths+1​

  • The act of measurement (by the equipment or any observation process) plays a crucial role in switching between wave-like and particle-like outcomes.physicsforums+1​

  • Experimental evidence shows that changing the measurement method can affect whether or not an interference pattern appears, but the arrival of impacts as discrete parcels is an inherent quantum property, not a sensing artifact.physicsforums+1​

Quantum Reality vs. Equipment

  • The discrete "parcel" impacts simply reveal that quantum objects arrive probabilistically and individually, building up wave-like patterns only statistically over many events.wikipedia+1​

  • Sensing equipment accurately measures these quantum arrivals; it does not artificially create the pattern, but it plays a role in whether the underlying quantum interference is detected or destroyed.profmattstrassler+1​

In conclusion, the "parcel" effect in the double-slit experiment arises fundamentally from quantum theory itself, not from quirks or limitations of the sensing equipment—though the design of the measurement process is critical in revealing or collapsing quantum phenomena.physicsforums+2

Editor​:

What specific sensing setups collapse the interference pattern?

    Specific sensing setups that collapse the interference pattern in the double-slit experiment are those that provide "which-path" information—revealing through which slit each particle traveled. If any device, detector, or measurement system allows the experimenter to know (even in principle) which slit a photon, electron, or other particle passes through, the interference pattern will be destroyed and replaced by a pattern of two distinct bands.profmattstrassler+3​

    Examples of Collapsing Setups

    • Direct Detectors at Slits: Placing a detector at or directly behind one or both slits that records each passing particle will collapse the interference pattern, as the act of measuring forces the particle to “choose” a path.plus.maths+2​

    • Which-Way Detectors: These are custom setups (such as filters, photon counters, or electron detectors) designed to determine the precise path of the particle. The mere availability of which-path information, even if not used, is enough to eliminate the interference.phys+1​

    • Entanglement-Based Measurements: In photon experiments, using entangled pairs and measuring one photon’s path information will collapse the interference for its partner, even if the physical detectors are not at the slits but elsewhere within the experiment’s network.nature+1​

    • Single-Slit Detection: Even if a detector is placed at only one slit, and not both, the interference collapses for the whole setup because the measurement at one slit indirectly reveals the path if a particle is not detected there.plus.maths​

    Measurement Principle

    • “Observation” or “measurement” means any interaction by which information about the path is recorded or becomes available—even if no human checks the result.profmattstrassler+1​

    • The act of measurement, not just physical interference or detector placement, is what triggers the collapse; so setups as subtle as weak probe beams, quantum dot sensors, or radiofrequency gates can serve as which-way detectors if they encode path information.phys+1​

    In summary, any sensing system that provides which-path information—however indirect or subtle—will collapse the interference pattern in a double-slit experiment, demonstrating a key feature of quantum measurement.profmattstrassler+3​

    1. https://profmattstrassler.com/2025/04/03/double-slit-why-measurement-destroys-the-interference-pattern/
    2. https://plus.maths.org/content/physics-minute-double-slit-experiment
    3. https://phys.org/news/2011-01-which-way-detector-mystery-double-slit.html
    4. https://profmattstrassler.com/2025/01/16/double-trouble-the-quantum-two-slit-experiment-1/
    5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-71091-1
    6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
    7. https://www.reddit.com/r/quantum/comments/v76wp3/does_the_double_slit_experiment_with_the/
    8. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5488953/
    9. https://www.facebook.com/groups/physicsisfun109/posts/387554147256769/
    10. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.042129
    11. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhysics/comments/18az3q1/how_do_we_detect_the_path_of_an_electron_what/
    12. https://physics.mit.edu/news/famous-double-slit-experiment-holds-up-when-stripped-to-its-quantum-essentials/
    13. https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/ajp/article/88/7/542/1044560/Can-students-apply-the-concept-of-which-path
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
  2. https://profmattstrassler.com/2025/04/03/double-slit-why-measurement-destroys-the-interference-pattern/
  3. https://plus.maths.org/content/physics-minute-double-slit-experiment
  4. https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/double-slit-experiment-is-observation-equipment-interfering.283376/
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhysics/comments/13ht48s/where_can_one_procure_equipment_to_do_the_double/
  6. https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/37023-double-slit-and-observer-effect-possible-to-test-at-home/
  7. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-71091-1
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzHNBT0nl0
  2. https://www.facebook.com/groups/473920566008054/posts/10069726166427398/
  3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10752875/
  4. https://www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhysics/comments/173ut1c/during_the_double_slit_experiment_how_do_we_know/
  5. http://webs.ftmc.uam.es/juancarlos.cuevas/Teaching/double-slit-C60.pdf
  6. https://plus.maths.org/content/physics-minute-double-slit-experiment
  7. https://news.mit.edu/2025/famous-double-slit-experiment-holds-when-stripped-to-quantum-essentials-0728
  8. https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/4szpub/a_few_questions_about_the_doubleslit_experiment/
  9. http://www.csun.edu/~rd436460/100B/lectures/chapter28-1-2.pdf
  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq0yAKcVNcM
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uva6gBEpfDY
  13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxPnstXg-Y
  14. https://www.discovery.com/science/Double-Slit-Experiment
  15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRX-s0p4HpM
  16. https://sciencevstruth.org/2013/12/08/explaining-the-double-slit-experiment/
  17. https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/physical-processes/light-and-electromagnetic-radiation-questions/v/youngs-double-split-part-1
Posted by Helge at 2:44 PM

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